Benefits and Challenges of using OER

1. Should You
Step Into
OER?
BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
BY MARY MCCLAIN

2. “Through creating and spreading open
educational resources, students learn
more and make an impact on the world”
- CHRISTINA HENDIRCKS

3. Objectives
Understand the benefits of using open educational resources
◦ Student Advocacy
◦ Social Responsibility
◦ Visibility of Course
◦ Collaboration
◦ Customization without copyright infringement
Identify the challenges in using open educational resources
◦ Quality Control
◦ Finding material
◦ Non-revocable
◦ Low visual interest
◦ Accessibility Issues
This Photo by Unknown Author
is licensed under CC BY

4. OER Benefits
Student Advocacy: Promoting open resources is a natural fit for student advocacy, given concerns about the
rising cost of higher education and textbooks. Students can participate and offer their own work.
Social Responsibility: OER provides a socially responsible way for everyone to have access to educational
resources no matter their ability to pay.
Visibility of Course and Collaboration: Access to material is opened up for popular and creative courses
to be shared and acknowledged. Promotes collaboration of instructional materials and ideas.
Customization without copyright infringement: No longer will instruction need to follow the content in
textbooks. Choosing parts from a variety of sources allows for a complete customization of materials
to fit the needs of the class objectives.

5. OER Challenges
Quality Control and Finding Material: There is no quality verification or rules around open source
offerings. As more and more resources are being provided as open source offering, it will also be
increasingly difficult to judge the quality and accuracy of the information. Along with more offerings
it will be difficult to filter through all the lists of available choices to find one to meet specific
requirements.
Non-revocable: Creative Commons licenses are non-revocable and may prevent some from wanting to
open the content without ultimate long term control of the material.
Low visual interest: Often the material lacks visual interest to match the information. Textbooks
incorporate color and visuals to add clarity and interest to written material.
Accessibility Issues: Disability issues continue to rise on campus. There are many colleges who have been
charged with violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act resulting in large fines. Finding material that has
been approved or created with accessibility requirements in mind is difficult.

6. Additional Comparisons  and 
TRADITIONAL TEXT
 Additional Instructor and student resources
◦ Instructor resources provide PowerPoints,
discussion Ideas, quizzes with answer keys not
accessible to students
◦ Integration easily added directly into many LMS
with support and training options
  Many supplemental options can be added (and
requires additional searching)
OER TEXT
 Student activity and discussion options typically
offered – without guided answers so additional
instructor actions required
 Many supplemental options can be added (and
requires additional searching)
 Customizable so students are required to hop
around material